Fast Five Becomes Biggest Yet in Franchise

The fifth entry in the Fast and Furious series delivered the biggest opening yet. Fast Five earned a massive $83.6 million in its first weekend which also marks the largest April opening in history. The film has already made $165 million worldwide as it has proven to have immense popularity overseas as well.

By once again bringing back all the principle characters while adding Dwayne Johnson, and building on the well received last entry, interest and awareness was remarkably high for Fast Five. Somewhat surprisingly it received great reviews as it currently sits at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, the only one in the series to have overwhelmingly positive reviews. Plans for the sixth entry in the franchise are already underway, and the general vision is to shift the films to become more heist-centric rather than just being based in street culture.

Other new openers included the Disney film Prom and the animated Hoodwinked Too! which both started soft generating only $5 and $4.1 million respectively. Rio has crossed the $100 million milestone after its third weekend.